An exploration in the context of feminist science of one theoretical basis of educational administration--Abraham Maslow's theory of human motivation and self-actualization--finds an androcentric bias in Maslow's methodology, philosophical underpinnings, and theory formulation. Maslow's hypothetico-deductive methodology was based on a conceptualization of human needs that found male qualities most desirable and that identified chiefly masculine goals as the goals of self-actualization. Women were seen as becoming self-actualized by achieving male goals. Maslow's sampling of self-actualizing people was biased since his sample was predominantly male. The validity of his data is difficult to assess because the data came from observation and from interviews for which there are no transcripts. The generalizability of Maslow's findings is suspect because his sample was biased. Maslow's interpretation of his results creates a model in which male values predominate, the ranking of human needs (affiliation, self-esteem, and self-actualization) is male-oriented, and most characteristics of the self-actualizing person are masculine and centered on the individual. An alternative view of female self-actualization, based on histories of two women's communities, emphasizes such values as group orientation, affiliation, emotional maintenance, development of self and individual talents, and empathy. (Author/RW)